Dream Report Card 

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Has MLK's "dream" been realized?
It's been over 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr. explained his dream to 250,000 Americans in Washington D.C. and millions more watching and listening at home. Has America become the land of equality that King spoke of in his famous speech? Are all Americans judged by the content of the character, and not by the color of their skin? One way to begin to answer this question is to examine some recent statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau. Your task is to analyze the statistics on the topics below, keeping in mind MLK's "dream".
You will be filling out a report card on American society, based on statistics from the US Census Bureau. In each of the four major categories, you and your partner will assign a letter grade to American society, provide statistical information to back up your letter grade, and then make comments and suggestions for improvement. You will also need to develop a comment concerning the "behavior" of society toward minorities. This report card will appear in your Unit 8 Online ISN.
**General Statistics**
 **Voting and Government**
 **Labor**
 **Education**
 **Income**

Some recent articles MLK would be interested to read ...

Cut and paste the table below for your notebook


Has Martin Luther King Jr.'s "dream" been realized?

TOPIC

GRADE

 RATIONALE WITH STATISTICS
 COMMENTS / SUGGESTIONS
Legislation and Politics
Civil Rights laws, affirmative action laws, representation in state and federal government, voting statistics

B
  • Civil Rights laws have been passed and enforced by the government
  • While the number of African Americans and Hispanics in the government is not near the percentage of population, the numbers are increasing every year
  • We have an African American president
  • African Americans vote at nearly the same rate as the average population, but Hispanics are much lower (average around 60% registering, African American 58%, Hispanic 28%)
  • Encourage minorities to continue to become active in politics, possibly through schools
  • Push for voter registration drives and voter eductaion in the Hispanic community, possibly with bilingual voting ballots
Employment

Number of employed / unemployed, types of jobs, business ownership
 B
  • By 2012, White and Black employment percentages are around 63%, and other minorities even have a higher percent than that.
  • Minorities' wages are diverse. Whites get payed more than blacks, but hispanics get payed more than whites.
  • There are much more unemployed African Americans than whites or Asians.
  • Provide better urban education
  • Need more equal pay for all races
Education
Graduation rates, test scores, college enrollment, educational attainment
 B-
  • African American high school graduation rose from 40% to 80%.
  • Other groups have had similar rises and are almost all at the same percentage of high school graduation.
  • African Americans have 10% less college graduation than other groups
  • In all cases regardless of education, African Americans receive less pay
  • Provide better education to everywhere in the US.
  • Institute requirements for averages of school grades.
  • Most problems come from lack of education
  • Provide language classes for those who have bad English
Income and Poverty
Average income, number below poverty level
 C+
  • African Americans receive a far less median income than any other minority. Hispanics and Asians both have a higher median income.
  • Only about 29,000 African American families make more than $250,000
Behavior